haywaed



(N0 Model.)

W. S. HAYWARD. Cracker Pa,

cking Machine.

Patented Oct. 12

@FILE f N1 PETERS. PHoTo-umecsaawne nrnNr rre. t

WILLIAM S. HAYWARD, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR TO RICE 82:HAYWARD, OF SAME PLACE.

CRACKER-PACKING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 233,245, dated October12, 1880.

Application filed J' une 19, 1880. (No model.)

To all whom, t may concern:

Be it-known that I, WILLIAM S. HAYWARD, of the city and county ofProvidence, in the State of Rhode Island, have invented a certain newand useful Gracker-Packing Machine; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing specification, taken in connection with the drawings furnishedand forming a part thereof, is a clear, true, and complete descriptionof my invention.

It is well known that certain classes of crackers and biscuits are putup for the market in boxes, barrels, 85e., and that they are packed intheir receptacles on edge and in rows, the better to preserve them frombeing broken during transportation, and also to enable them to bereadily handled without breakage by the retailer, whether sold by countor weight. Heretofore, so far as my knowledge extends, such goods havebeen first delivered from the oven-pans into boxes or baskets in mass,and from thence they have been taken out by hand, arranged side by side,and placed in rows into the packing case or barrel. This operation iscomparatively slow and expensive,-mainly because of the time and laborinvolved in picking up the goods and arranging them side by side in thehands preparatory to placing them into the packing case or barrel.

Ihe object of my invention is to mechanically accomplish the mainportion of this 1abor-vL e., to operate upon the goods in mass andarrange them in rows side by side, and in a position from which they canbe readily picked up by the hands many at a time and transferred to thepacking-case.

Practically, with a machine embodying the several features of myinvention, goods of the character named can be packed at a savingin costof labor of upward of seventy-tive per cent.

My invention consists in the combination of certain devices, as fullyspecified in detail in the several claims hereunto annexed.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a machineembodying my invention. Fig. 2 represents the same in longitudinalvertical central section. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal horizontal sectionalview of the same on line fr. Fig. 4 is a rear view of the device forvibrating the hopper.

The frame of the machine may be variously constructed; but the drawingsare sufficiently accurate to enable a person skilled in the art toconstruct a frame suitable for the purpose.

The inclined hopper A is located upon the upper rear portion of theframe. Into this the crackers are poured in mass, and to insure theirfree downward course the bottom a of the hopper is pivoted at its upperend and made to vibrate to and fro, in this instance by means of aninclined revolving disk, a', mounted on shaft a2, and a fork projectingdownward from the bottom a, which loosely embraces said disk near itsperiphery.

As the crackers descend they enter the several curved chutes B, whichare adapted to receive the crackers edgewise only, and are alittle widerthan the diameter of the crackers and open in front at the bottom. Abovethe mouths of the chutes, and over the lower end of the hopper, is arevolving sweep, C, which revolves, as indicated by an arrow thereon, sothat its bars at the lower side move toward the hopper, the prime valueof which is due to the fact that its bars c so far approach the bottomofthe hopper that the intervening space is but little greater than thethickness of the crackers, and therefore they cannot enter the chuteswhile riding one upon another. The sweep is therefore preferably adjustably mounted with its bearings on springs c', provided withadjusting-screws o2. By turning these screws outward the springs liftthe' sweep, and by turning them inward the springs yield, and thusenable the adjustment of the sweep to any desired position withreference to the bottom of the hopper, to provide for proper operationwith crackers of different thicknesses.

The chutes are provided with light flexible spring-fronts D, secured attheir upper ends to a cross-bar, d, and free to yield at their lowerends sufficiently to obviate the crushing of crackers undercircumstances hereinafter set forth. From the bases of the chutes astationary table, E, projects from the frame of the machine for therecept-ion of the crackers as they are projected from the clmtes. Thistable is longitudinally channeled, so as to constitute, in substance, ahorizontal prolongation of each chute. The bottom of each channel e isconcave to correspond generally with the usual outline of the crackers.

The crackers are projected from the bottoms of the chutes B into theconcave channels e by means of a series of plungers, F, which arereciprocated longitudinally by means of a slide, f, to which all of themare connected, and apitman, f, which connects said slide with a crank onthe main shaft G of the machine.

The revolving sweep and the vibrating bottom of the hopper may be drivenby means of gearing from the main shaft, as shown, or, as is sometimespreferable, light belts may be employed for that purpose.

As thus far described, it will be seen that crackers placed in masswithin the hopper will be made to descend into and occupy the chutes innearly a vertical position, each in contact with the edge of the other,and that the reciprocating plungers will push them singly from thebottoms of the chutes forward into the channels, ill which they will lieside by side on their edges, so that the workman may pick them up inconsiderable numbers, all prearranged for readily placing them into thepacking-cases. In the case of very delicate goods, however, they areliable to be broken by the plungers whenever the latter at their upperfront edges engage with a cracker next above the one at the bottom ofthe chute, and therefore I have introduced means whereby each plunger isprevented from engaging with more than one cracker or biscuit at a time.This is effected by lneans of a series of stop-rods, H, one of whichenters each chute above the plunger, and at adistance therefrom slightlygreater than the diameters ofthe crackers or biscuits. These stop-rodshave a reciprocating movement, alternating with the movement of theplungers. Said stop-rods do not move precisely as the plungers do, butare arranged to rest during a portion ot' the movement of the latter-z'.c., assuming the plungers to be at their most rearward position, thestop-rods would be fully forward, and would remain so until the plungers had advanced morethan the thicknessofacracker. Then,whi|etheplungerstill advanced, the stop-rods would retire, but simultaneously with thereturn movement of the plungers, the stop-rods then move forward again.1t will be readily seen, therefore, that each stop-rod engages with oneof the crackers in the columns and prevents the one thus engaged andthose above and resting upon it from falling, except when the plunger isso far projected as to support a cracker on its upper side, and thatthen said rod retires, dropping the column of crackers, which then restsupon the plunger until the latter commences to retire, whereupon thestop-rod next engages with the cracker next above, so that when theplunger fully retires the cracker which rested thereon falls tothebottom of the chute,and is next projected into the channel by thesucceeding forward movement of the plunger, and so on, as long as thehopper is supplied with crackers.

There are various conditions to be provided for in theoperation of thesestop-rods it'the best results are to be attained. The crackers aresometimes very delicate, are warped out of shape in baking, andfrequently puffed, leaving only a thin shell on oneorboth sides thereof.To provide against breaking the crackers the fronts of the chutes arepreferably capable of yielding, as previously described. So, also, arethe stop-rods so mounted as not to move forward positively, but so as toexercise a yielding pressure, as by a spring, or its equivalent, aweight, as preferably employed by me. The rearward movement of thestop-rod is positive, to provide against the adhesion thereto of aputl'ed or soft cracker or biscuit, such as is liable to be pierced bythe stop-rod, notwithstanding its yielding pressure. For enabling aminimum of pressure of the rods to be employed the bottoms of the chutesare curved from the hopper downward and forward, so that the weight ofthe crackers in line therein is partially borne by the bottom of thechute, instead of having the whole weight thereof snpported by thecracker with which the pin is engaged, as would be the case if thechutes were wholly vertical.

The stop-rods are preferably constructed and arranged by me to operateas follows A pivotrod, I, extends from side to side of the frame of themachine parallel with the main shaftG and above the slide f, to whichthe plungers are attached. 0n this pivot-rod are loosely pi voted aseries of tappets, g, one for each stoprod, and to the upper ends of thetappets the rear ends of the rods are hinged or pivoted. Each tappet hasprojecting forward from its upper end a rigid arm, h, carrying at itsouter end a weight, t', which normally causes the tappet to maintain avertical position on its pivotrod, and the stop-rod in a fully-projectedposition. Upon the slide f, in line with the lower ends of the tappetsg,are lugs k, which, when the slide moves forward, engage with the lowerends of their respective tappets, and so rotate them on their pivot-rodas to cause the retirement of all the stop-rods simultaneously, and whensaid slide moves backward the tappets, by their weights, are each madeto assume such position as circumstances warrant-t. e., if no cracker beengaged by a. stop-rod it moves fully forward and its tappet resumes itsnormal position but if a cracker be engaged thereby its tappet is leftin a position corresponding to the position ofthe rod.

The yielding front of each chute operates well with apositively-projected stop-rod; but I prefer the yielding stop-rod.

In practice I have found that two stop-rods for each chute is sometimesdesirable, one be- IOO ing located above the other, with about the samespace between them as between the lower stop-rod and the plunger. Whentwo stoprods are thus employed the upper arm ot' the tappet may besomewhat extended, or the upper rods may be bent at an angle above thetappets in an obvious manner. The Weights used with the double stop-rodsshould be slightly heavier thanthose used with the single rods.

With the machine constructed as shown and described very valuableresults are attainable, with a minimum loss in breakage of the goods;but approximately desirable results will be attainable if the hopper bevery much inclined and have no movement, or if the contents be vibratedin a manner other than by the vibrating bottom or without therevolvingsweep.

With certain classes of goods the stop-rods may be dispensed With; buttheir use is preferable in all cases. So, also, may the stop-rods bevariously arranged and operated, and I therefore do not limit myinvention to the precise construction, combination, and arrangementshown of any of the parts shown, for they may be largely varied withoutsubstantial departure from the spirit of my invention.

Having thus described myinvention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patentl. The combination, substantially as hereinbeforedescribed, of an inclined vibrating hopper, a stationary channeledtable, one or more chutes adapted to receive the crackers edgei wiseonly, connecting the table and hopper, and plun gers for projectingsingle crackers or biscuits from the bottom of the chutes into thechannels of the table.

2. The combination, substantially as hereinbefore described, of thehopper, chutes, channeled table, and plungers, and a stop-rod for eachchute, for controlling crackers within the chute and delivering them oneat a time to the plungers.

3. The combination, with the hopper and chute of a cracker-packin gmachine, ot' a yielding stop-rod, substantially as described.

4. The chute provided with a yielding front, in combination with astop-rod, substantially as described.

5. The combination, with the hopper, ofthe revolving sweep, the seriesof chutes, the plungers, and the channeled table. substantially asdescribed.

6. The combination, with the hopper and the chutes, of the sweep mountedabove the hopper and in adjustable bearings, substantially as described.

7. The combination, with the chutes, ofthe yielding stop-rods, thetappets, and the positively-driven slide for retiring said rods,substantially as described.

WILLIAM S. HAYWARD.

Witnesses SnuoN S. LAPHAM, Louis L. ANGELI..

